Utopia Music team members, including employees of the company’s Musimap subsidiary. Photo Credit: Utopia Music
Song-play monitor Utopia Music has officially acquired music-industry directory ROSTR and data-analytics platform ForTunes, which will be part of the purchasing company’s newly minted “Creator Services” division.
Five-year-old Utopia Music just recently announced the purchases, which follow its late-September buyout of Quincy Jones-backed Musimap and its late-October acquisition of Nashville-headquartered artist-advance business Lyric Financial.
California-based ROSTR was founded by former Spotify execs Mark Williamson (who also serves as ROSTR’s CEO) and Adam Watson (ROSTR’s CTO and a co-founder of CrowdAlbum). And per Utopia Music, the entity aims “to create a more modern, connected and fair Music Industry.”
Zug, Switzerland-headquartered Utopia Music’s formal release is relatively light on details about Vienna’s ForTunes, however, specifying only that the business “provides a new generation of Artists, Producers, their Management, and Labels comprehensive data at their fingertips.” The startup’s founder(s) didn’t offer a statement for the document – and, to be sure, aren’t named in the release.
In any event, “ForTunes is built in Vienna by a team of 8 music and tech enthusiasts,” the six-year-old platform’s LinkedIn page relays. Moving forward, ForTunes as well as ROSTR will continue to service existing customers as independent divisions of Utopia Music, which hasn’t publicly revealed the companies’ purchase prices.
But Utopia Music’s aforementioned Creator Services division, the product offering of which “will be officially launched in 2022,” is poised to “provide a single common interface for songwriters, composers, artists, performers, and professionals to understand their audience and find monetization opportunities for their creative rights and other endeavours,” per the text.
Lastly, regarding the multifaceted announcement’s details, ROSTR’s previously noted co-founder and CEO, Mark Williamson, is expected to start as Utopia’s vice president of creator services, playing “an integral role not only in bringing ROSTR into the Utopia family but also ensuring continued growth of the Creator Services Business Unit,” according to the involved parties.
Addressing the acquisitions and the new division in a statement, Utopia Music COO Roberto Neri emphasized his broader vision for the Creator Services unit’s role in the contemporary music industry.
“By providing creators with the right tools, data, and eliminating roadblocks we can help them elevate their revenues and find new ways to strengthen their careers,” said the former Downtown Music exec Neri.
“ROSTR and ForTunes are two key players in the industry that, just like Utopia, believe in transparency and fairness, and have the technology, vision, and drive to lead the way with us. These acquisitions open a whole new chapter for Utopia, and we could not be more excited about the future,” finished the Music Publishers Association board member and chairman Neri.